I’m slowly, but surely learning that the more time I spend thinking about how I want to spend my time and how I want those activities to make me feel, the less time I spend mindlessly watching TV or trolling around Facebook.

My word of the year is connection, so keeping that in mind, I’m making plans for this fall which involves my friends and family.

I, like most people it would seem, love fall. Here in Sacramento, it cools down to the mid 80s and you can finally enjoy being outside in the afternoon. The leaves turn color and you can wear boots and layers and for the most part never be cold.

Fall is a good thing.

FIFTEEN WAYS TO HAVE FUN WITH YOUR FAMILY THIS FALL

1.     Go to Apple Hill (or your region’s equivalent) and eat all of the apple things. There has been talk of apple donuts, apple pie, apple cider. And, of course, garlic french fries.

2.     Celebrate Family Day – we celebrate the day we became a family with everyone taking the day off from work. We spend the day together, we go out to eat and this year we’re eating all the apples.

3.     Pick your own pumpkins at a pumpkin patch. We go to Uncle Ray’s because it’s a low-key place. The only thing you pay for is your pumpkins. Even parking is free. Plus it is less than 20 minutes from home. A perfect weekday field trip with the two-year old.

4.     Get lost in a corn maze – Uncle Ray’s is perfect for little ones.

5.     Tractor-pulled hay ride – Uncle Ray’s takes you on a little tour of the farm in the back of a hay-filled tractor. Last year, Little Girl, could not stop clapping. She absolutely loved it. So we’ll go again.

6.     Train ride – The Sacramento River Train goes between West Sacramento and Woodland. Three hours and ends up at, you guessed it, Uncle Ray’s! Apparently there is food and it takes three hours. This might be a mama friend date trip.

7.     Ginkgo leaf photos of Little Girl. So ginkgo trees down the block from us, or as I like to call them, The Twins, get absolutely spectacular in the fall turning from a lovely shade of green to the most brilliant yellow. I’ve been taking photos of the baby in those leaf piles for the last two years and I plan to do it again. I’m super glad they are in the front of someone’s house, so I don’t have to ask to go in someone else’s back yard to get these photos.

Plus waiting for the perfect time to take the photos forces me to watch those leaves closely. It’s a win, win!

8.     Watch the leaves change. See above. I’m on high alert. This is a new favorite fall activity.

9.     Try five new fall recipes. Haven’t decided what to make yet, so if you’d like me to make your favorite, leave a link in the comment section. I’ll most likely be using Pinterest as my recipe finder.

10.     Homecoming parade and football game. I went to my 25th high school reunion this past summer and visited the brand new campus of my alma mater, so it really only makes sense that I go to Homecoming this year. I don’t think I’ve been in at least 23 years. Also: I am old.

11.     Attend a soccer game to see my BFF’s son play. We are not yet being held hostage by sports every weekend, so this actually sounds like fun. And there will likely be delicious brunch after.

12.     Read fall themed books from the library. Over and over and over again. Our little bookworm lives in the land of repeats, so we might as well make them seasonal. Here’s some Halloween books and some pumpkin books and some monster books and some fall books and some more fall books.

13.     Consider an alternative to pumpkin carving.  I’m thinking pounding golf tees into a pumpkin would be a good idea.